2002 XWBL
Moses Water Baseball's brother, Gustav Water Baseball, founded a Water Baseball league in 2002 to rival the newly formed Professional Water Baseball League formed by Moses. these leagues existed after the experimental PABL had one season. Like the PWBL and PABL, the XWBL had some former players, general managers, and other personnel. Some people say the "X" in XWBL stood for "extreme," but it really didn't stand for anything. It was kind of like the XFL, as both started with the letter X, lasted one season, and were an inferior product. The XWBL had 10 teams playing a 70 game season and only existed in 2002. Games were played between mid-April and the end of June, and the season was over as the PWBL went into its stretch run. After one season, the league was disbanded. One noteable rule was that if a game remained tied after 13 innings, a home run derby would be used to settle the tie. Teams would choose 3 players who would each get five swings. Whichever squad had more home runs was declared the winner of the game. If tied after three players, the teams would use a fourth, then a 5th, then a 6th player, until the entire roster is used up. If the entire roster is used up and the game is still deadlocked, then each team picks one player to throw a baseball from home plate. Whichever player throws the ball further gets to choose which team wins the game. The Totemsburgh Boy Scout Masters were the champion, as they defeated the Mandrake Falls Mr. Deedses in the Mars Series. Rod Dumb, known by his nickname, He Dislike Me, was the League MVP Here are the standings from the 2002 XWBL: The talent was clearly not evenly distributed. Four teams made it to the playoffs, and byes did not exist. Playoffs - no real suprises here: Mandrake Falls and Miami finished tied for 2nd in the East. Per league rules, the tie was settled with a "scramble for the ball" at a neutral location, Pittsburgh. A player from Mandrake Falls stood at 3rd base, a player from Miami stood at 1st base, and the ball was placed on 2nd base. A gun fired off and and the swimmers were off! The swimmer from Mandrake falls recovered the ball and therefore, the Mr. Deedses moved on the the playoffs. Divisional Round (single game) East: Mandrake Falls 13, PITTSBURGH 11 West: TOTEMSBURGH 6, Dallas 2 Mars Series (5-game series) TOTEMSBURGH wins over Mandrake Falls, 3 games to 2 Game 1: Mandrake Falls 11, TOTEMSBURGH 11 (13, Mandrake Falls wins via Home Run Derby) Game 2: TOTEMSBURGH 6, Mandrake Falls 5 (10) Game 3: Totemsburgh 9, MANDRAKE FALLS 0 Game 4: MANDRAKE FALLS 3, Totemsburgh 0 Game 5: TOTEMSBURGH 4, Mandrake Falls 3, thanks in large part to an awful call by umpire Seth Blindman WC Round: (3 game series) Kabutos over Stevens 2-1 Republicans over Oblongs 2-1 Semis: (3 game series) Generals over Kabutos 3-0 WBB Players over Republicans 2-1 Planet Series: (5 game series) Generals over WBB Players 3-2